Duverger's Indonesia

Blog 7 Indonesia and Duverger’s Law- Alex Miller

            Indonesia supports Duverger’s law which states that “The effective number of parties in any electoral district is a function of the electoral rules” because Indonesia, as a proportional representation (PR) form of government, allows for more effective parties in its electoral process with its high district magnitudes, open lists, formula, and low thresholds.

            To begin, using the formula N_eff=1/Σ(p²), it is clear that Indonesia has an unusually high number of 9.7561 for its number of effective parties. This number is derived from the following statistics:

Political Group Candidates	%	(p) 2
Democrats Party (PD)	20.85	.0434
Golkar	14.45	.0208
Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle (PDI-P)	14.03	.0196
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS)	7.88	.0062
National Mandate Party (PAN)	6.01	.0036
United Development Party (PPP)	5.32	.0028
National Awakening Party (PKB)	4.94	.0024
Great Indonesia Movement Party	4.46	.0019
People's Conscience Party	3.77	.0014

(Inter-Parlimentary Union 2009)

            To establish that Indonesia’s effective number of parties is a function of electoral rules, the first indicator is the district magnitude, or how many seats are allotted to each electoral district. In the case of Indonesia however, the district magnitude ranges from 3-10. According to the laws (undang-undang) of Indonesia, in elections there are a minimum of three seats and a maximum of 10 seats available in the House of Representatives, awarded to Indonesia’s 32 provinces according to population each year (Rakyat 2008). The way this works, is through multi-member districts that constitute a total of 550 seats in the House of Representatives. This ranging magnitude demonstrates a capacity for a highly PR form of government where the people, because of high diversity and social cleavages, can have their voice heard and fairly represented.

            Another element in the electoral process which demonstrates Indonesia’s highly PR form of Government is their open list structure for party candidates. When in line for the House, Indonesia has an open list structure with preference, meaning that Indonesian citizens have power, through their votes, to choose the position of the candidates of the list. Additionally, if the voter is in disagreement with the candidate, they can still vote for the party as a whole and not just a specific candidate (Inter-Parlimentary Union 2009). Furthermore, Indonesia’s constitution requires that 30% of the candidates be female, providing much more representation to gender as well as ethnicity, culture, religion, etc. This electoral structure represents a PR form of government because it gives the voters more power and control and representation according to their individual situations. Even if there is a small minority, their voice will still be heard though these lists in the preference of candidates.

            An additional electoral element that demonstrates Indonesia’s PR nature is the mathematical formula used to allocate the seats in the House of Representatives. The formula Indonesia uses is the Hare quota. This is described as, “...the minimum number of votes required for a party or candidate to capture a seat” (Wikipedia.org 2012). In the case of Indonesia, this quota is 30% of the votes, which is a form of PR because it is more favorable to smaller parties in a multi-party election since it allows the smaller parties to claim the latter spots for the representatives if larger parties claim one representative per party. If in Indonesia’s case, there are nine representatives and therefore each effective party would have the ability to get one candidate if the majority of each party favored one candidate.

            The last electoral structure which supports Indonesia’s PR form of government is its low threshold at 2.5 percent. (Wikipedia.org 2012) This means that in order for a party to obtain any seats from a particular district of multi-party district, they must receive a minimum of 2.5 percent of the votes. This supports Duverger’s law because this low threshold allows for more parties which supports a PR form of government because it allows more parties to adequately represent the vast amount of ethnicities in Indonesia’s 15,000 to 17,000 islands, according to their proportions.

            In conclusion, it is clear that Indonesia supports Duverger’s law because Indonesia, as a proportional representation form of government, allows for more effective parties in its electoral process due to its electoral structure of high district magnitudes, open lists, formula, and low thresholds.

Works Cited

Inter-Parlimentary Union. Indonesia (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat). 2009.             http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2147_B.htm (accessed November 1, 2012).

Rakyat, Anggota Dewan Perwakilan. "Art 22." In Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia No. 10.       Jakarta, 2008.

Wikipedia.org. Elections in Indonesia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Indonesia             (accessed November 2, 2012).

Wikipedia.org. Hare Quota. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_quota (accessed November 2,         2012).